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Lebanon Rescue Mission gets Crown Magnetics building after all

The city will not fight the mission's threatened legal challenge to Zoning Hearing Board inaction

By JOHN LATIMERLebanon Daily News

Updated:
12/26/2012 11:29:54 AM EST

The Crown Magnetics building stands on Bitner Boulevard in Lebanon in this file photo from April. Lebanon has decided not to fight the Rescue Mission s zoning challenge in acquiring the building. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO)

The hymn says God moves in a mysterious way - and apparently one of them is through legal channels.

The Lebanon Rescue Mission's plan to relocate to the former Crown Magnetics building is back on track.

"The good Lord popped open a window for us, and we went through it," said Susan Spahr, the mission's executive director.

That window was in the form of a lawsuit the Rescue Mission board threatened to file against the city's Zoning Hearing Board over a technicality after its variance request to occupy the building at 1200 Bitner Blvd. was denied in April.

Rather than risk an expensive and protracted legal battle, Mayor Sherry Capello has decided not to oppose the Rescue Mission.

That decision effectively grants the mission a variance that will allow it to move its men's 12-month discipleship ministry, transient shelter and Lazarus House extended-living program to the building after it is renovated.

The building, which once housed an audio-visual product duplication company, has been vacant for more than a year. It is in the manufacturing light zoning district but is near dozens of residential homes on North 12th and Willow streets.

At the April hearing, zoning board solicitor Keith Kilgore said he had received three letters from residents in opposition to granting the variance. The board also heard opposition testimony from the Lebanon County Redevelopment Authority, which developed Bitner Boulevard and once had its office located there.

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The board voted unanimously to deny the variance on the grounds that the mission did not show a hardship that was preventing it from relocating elsewhere. Zoning board Chairman Bob Hoffman recused himself from the vote because he is a Rescue Mission volunteer.

What seemed like a dead deal got new life in July, when the Rescue Mission notified the zoning board that, because it had not sent written notification of the ruling within the required 45 days, the variance should be granted.

At the time of the letter, Kilgore admitted to the oversight. But, he said, because the ruling had been done at the hearing in the presence of Rescue Mission officials, the decision would stand up in court.

But Capello, a former zoning officer, felt differently.

"The Zoning Hearing Board did not get the decision out within the required time," the mayor said. "That is something procedural, which I didn't feel we would win in court. So, in my opinion, I didn't think it made sense wasting taxpayers' dollars."

Capello added that she felt comfortable in not pursuing the matter legally because she did not hear any complaints from residents living adjacent to Crown Magnetics after she asked Spahr to contact them about their concerns.

"If it would have been a huge outcry from the adjacent owners I would have talked further with the solicitor about it, but no one contacted my office," she said.

Spahr said the Rescue Mission board and staff are excited with the turn of events and moving forward. A bid on the building to owner Chuck Musser has been accepted, and the deal is expected to be closed by March, she said.

At that time, renovations will begin that are expected to take about six months. When those are completed, the mission will move from its facility at South Sixth and Elm streets, its home since 1949.

"We are hoping that next year our food drive and holiday meals will all be in the new building," Spahr said.

The project will cost quite a bit of money, and a capital fundraising program with a goal of $2 million will officially be announced in late January, Spahr said.

The sale of the existing facility would help to offset the cost, she said. Several local churches have already shown interest.

The mission will be an asset to its new neighborhood, she added.

"We hope to quietly move into our new neighborhood and become really good neighbors in the same way that we have been for the past 67 years," she said. "I think there are plenty of ways for us to be really good vital influences on that area of our community."

Spahr said she has been buoyed by the public support she's received about the project. She also feels residents of the area have become more accepting of the Rescue Mission since learning more about it.

"We reached out to residents in the neighborhood to introduce ourselves and ensure them that if they had any concerns or question they should contact me," she said. "The security and safety is our number-one priority for our staff, our guests and our surrounding community."

While disheartened at how things started out, Spahr said, she never lost faith that the project would eventually work out.

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